Footsteps Series 1: Letting Go
by shadowglove
Summary: After Jimmy's death, Chloe goes to a medium to try and communicate with her departed husband, to beg his forgiveness, and there she meets Sarah Blake, who in her own way helps Chloe take that first step in letting go and continuing with her life.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Smallville or Supernatural.**

Written for my Paranormal25 150 Prompt Table in Livejournal. Prompt# 40: Channeling.

Spoilers? Both series are game. Especially season 8 of Smallville, and Supernatural's Season One episode _Provenance_.

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"So, why are _you_ here?"

Chloe looked up at the pretty brunette who would soon be sitting in on the same session, and she couldn't help but feel nervous. She knew that magic was real and existed, she'd have been an idiot not to believe after being possessed by the spirit of a witch, and after Zantana…but this was a different venue of the arts, and she wasn't sure if she believed in _this_ sort of magic.

But she had to give it a try.

"My husband," she began taking in a deep breath. "He died saving me a month ago, and I never got to properly say goodbye, to tell him I loved him."

It was her guilt that hadn't let her live her life up until now. Jimmy had died saving her from Davis, from the one person she'd distanced herself from everyone around her to save, and Chloe just couldn't forgive herself.

"Oh, I'm sorry." The girl whispered, drawing back a moment before taking in a deep breath and smiling sadly. "My mother passed away a couple of months ago, cancer. I---I just want to know she's in a better place."

Chloe paused, considering that. She hadn't even wondered about whether heaven and hell really existed, but now that she did, she knew that Jimmy was in a better place. There was no other place for Jimmy and his sweet smiles, his self-sacrificing ways.

"You know, if it hadn't been for a couple of weeks ago I would never have even considered this." The woman announced, rubbing her hands together nervously. "Up until then I didn't believe in the afterlife or the supernatural, but now? Now…now I've been left with so many questions."

"And you think this will give you the answers?" Chloe asked, not meanly, quite curious actually.

"I'm hoping." She admitted, before outstretching her hand. "I'm Sarah Blake."

"Chloe Sullivan." Chloe shook her hand, smiling, feeling a kinship with the older woman.

"This might be rude," Sarah smiled. "But you seem pretty young to be a widow."

"I'm twenty one." Chloe nodded. Most people thought she'd been too young as well. "We were only married a couple of months, but I'd known him since I was nineteen."

"I'm sorry." Sarah repeated.

"And I'm sorry about your mom." Chloe smiled, amazed at how easy it was to talk to a stranger about this when whenever Clark or Lois tried to bring up the topic she closed up immediately. "So," she cleared her throat. "Would it be too nosy of me to ask what changed your mind about the supernatural?"

There was a pause, and then Sarah smiled whimsically. "You probably won't believe me—I mean _I_ probably wouldn't believe it if I'd heard it from someone else."

"Try me." There wasn't much on this earth that Chloe wouldn't believe in nowadays.

"Well, it started off like this." And Sarah told her of how she worked for her father at his art dealership, and of a cursed portrait of the Merchant family that led to the deaths of every single person who bought it.

She'd then gone on to tell Chloe about the Winchester brothers, Sam and Dean, whom apparently made their living hunting ghosts and monsters. Sarah mostly talked about Sam though, and her eyes would twinkle as she did so, obviously harboring feelings for the younger brother.

"We didn't make it on time to save Evelyn, and up till this day I feel so horrible." She sighed, telling of how she'd gotten involved in the Winchester's investigation when she gave them the address of the next person to buy the portrait, causing Evelyn to be killed, her throat slit like all the other victims.

She'd then joined the Winchesters on their investigation of the father of the family when she'd seen his face in the portrait turn towards her. She'd been with them and they'd investigated, she'd been with them as they dug up the father's body, salt and burnt it.

"Salt and burnt?" Chloe leaned in, forgetting that they were waiting on the medium to ready for the séance. She was intrigued with the detail in Sarah's story, knowing that what the other woman was saying was true.

"Yeah, the purifying agents in the salt nullify evil spirits or something." Sarah nodded, grin wide on her face. "Apparently iron does the same thing. If you have something evil after you, you put yourself in a ring of salt, with an iron poker from the fireplace, and that's about as safe as you're gonna get."

Considering how these sorts of things were happening more and more frequently in Chloe's life, the blonde stored away the knowledge for another time. She was intrigued with this life the Winchesters led, and she was glad to think that while she and her boys were fighting the alien and metahuman evils of the world, there were people like the Winchesters fighting the other evils they couldn't cover.

"And what happened afterwards?" Chloe asked. "If you salt and burnt the body of the Merchant man then the curse was lifted, right?"

"That's what _I_ said, but Sam and Dean insisted on going back to Evelyn's to check just in case." Sarah shifted in her seat. "So Dean stays in his Impala and tells Sam and I to go and check it out together, as if this is some romantic outing and not making sure a killer ghost is pinned to his portrait."

Chloe snorted in laughter.

"I know, right?" Sarah giggled, shaking her head. "Sam was _very_ embarrassed, but it wasn't long lived because by the time we got to the portrait we realized that there was someone missing."

"Mr. Merchant." Chloe guessed.

"No, his _daughter_." Sarah whispered.

"His _daughter_?" Chloe gasped.

Sarah nodded. "She locked us inside the house and left Dean outside, and tried to kill us with this barber's knife."

"But you said that she'd been cremated." Chloe remembered, completely enthralled with the story. "I remember you saying that her ashes were in the urn next to the doll or something."

"_Exactly_." Sarah grinned, obviously pleased that Chloe had been paying attention. "But we handle antique dolls like that all the time at the store, and I remembered that in those days the dolls were fashioned after the image of their owner, even their _hair_ was used for the doll's hair."

Green eyes widened as Chloe suddenly understood. "You burnt the doll."

"Dean did, and right in time as well." Sarah answered, leaning back against her seat. "I had the portrait burnt, just in case, and Sam and Dean left."

There was a sigh.

Chloe watched the other girl. "You really liked this Sam, huh?"

"Yeah." Sarah nodded, nostalgic. "But it really wasn't going to be. Even though I proved I could take care of myself, or, err, _not_ die during that kinda situation Sam wasn't willing to risk it. He obviously didn't feel strong enough to try, and we'd only known each other for two days so I really don't blame him."

But Chloe could tell that the brunette was hurt and seriously disappointed.

"I knew he wasn't the one for me," Sarah smiled sadly. "And I wasn't the one for him."

"But you wish you were." Chloe read between the lines.

"Sometimes." Sarah laughed softly. "But I think I was what he needed to begin his healing. His girlfriend was killed supernaturally and he was completely closed off to the idea of loving someone or getting close to them because he was scared that they'd get hurt. I like to think I was a forwards step in his path to opening himself back up to love."

Chloe smiled softly. "That's sweet."

"So is he." Sarah smiled softly as well, eyes distant, obviously remembering this Sam Winchester fondly. "He deserves to find someone who he can love fully, and he _will_. I mightn't have known him for long but in the little time I knew him I know that Sam is capable of loving, _deeply_, and I know deep in my heart that I'll forever be jealous of the woman he finally loves."

"Who knows," Chloe tried to comfort. "It could still be you. He might call you or return to you sometime in the future."

"It would be nice, but I know it won't happen." Sarah whispered, smile still intact. "Our lives go in different directions, but I'm happy that I met him. I'm glad that I had him for the little amount of time that I did."

Chloe pulled away and thought oddly that that was how she felt about Jimmy. She'd had him for so short a time, and yet the time that she had had she'd cherished, and be forever grateful for someone who'd loved her the way he had.

She smiled, picturing his laughing face and the way he seemed to brighten as he called her 'Bright Eyes'.

What she wouldn't do to hear him calling her that _one more time_.

That was probably why she was here.

"Thank you for waiting." Ursula Manors (or better known as Madam Ursula) opened the door to the room in which the séance would take place. "Would you all please enter?"

Chloe, Sarah, and the others who'd been waiting on the medium stood and went into the room.

The séance in itself was odd, and Chloe had felt like an intruder as the various spirits of those beloved of the people sitting in a circle by the table possessed the medium, holding hands. She'd seen a mother talking to her drowned child, a man speaking to the woman he'd hadn't been able to protect, and Sarah speaking to her mother, both crying happily, Sarah relieved that her mother was in a better place.

Still, Chloe kept herself skeptic until it was her turn, and the medium channeled the spirit of Jimmy, his first words convincing her of their validity.

"_Bright Eyes_?" The medium's voice was now Jimmy's, her tones his tones, the expression on her face all his.

And Chloe burst out crying.

"Don't cry." Jimmy's eyes were the ones on her. "Please don't cry."

"_I'm so sorry_." She cried, vision foggy from her tears. "It was all my fault, Jimmy. I'm _so sorry_. Please forgive me!"

"Chloe, it wasn't your fault." Jimmy's voice, Jimmy's softened expression. "I love you, and I'd happily lay down my life for yours again and again."

"I always loved you." Chloe whispered, begging him to believe her. "Always you Jimmy, only you."

"I know." His smile, his dimples. "Chloe, you're so full of love, and I don't want you to close yourself because of this. When you love again, it will be beautiful, and I will be happy for you----even if I'll be jealous of the lucky man to own your heart."

"_Jimmy_…" She sniffled.

"You'll love again, Chloe, and it will be far from conventional, but when have you ever been conventional? It's one of the things I always loved about you." His eyes were misty, his smile trembling. "Goodbye, Bright Eyes. Never forget me. I love you."

"_I love you too_." Chloe sobbed, and then he was gone, and the medium was once more in control.

Chloe went through the motions of the rest of the séance, and when it was over she rushed to the bathroom to wash her face and blow her nose.

Looking at her reflection in the mirror above the sink, she smiled tenderly as she remembered Jimmy's words.

She loved Jimmy, and she knew he'd loved her too, but it was time she stopped blaming herself for his death, _Jimmy_ didn't.

_At least---at least I was able to see him one last time_.

'Goodbye, Bright Eyes.'

Chloe closed her eyes, imagining her husband before her, smiling at her in that beloved and sweet way, hands shucked in his pockets, bowtie crooked and cute.

_Goodbye, Jimmy_.

Opening her eyes, Chloe smiled at her reflection, left the bathroom, and Madam Ursula's home. She stepped outside and paused, closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath as she raised her face to the sun, smile tilting her lips.

She was finally letting go, and opening herself to life once more.

And she didn't need Madam Ursula to know that wherever he was, Jimmy was watching over her and smiling right back.

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